Runnin' With the Dogshttps://runninwiththedogs.com
Thu, 20 Jul 2017 14:29:19 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://s2.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngRunnin' With the Dogshttps://runninwiththedogs.com
Survey Says?https://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/07/18/survey-says/
https://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/07/18/survey-says/#commentsTue, 18 Jul 2017 16:08:49 +0000http://runninwiththedogs.com/?p=4251]]>The NCAA wants you to help them fix their crappy social media account for hockey. Which, first of all, no. Pay me money and I will consult for you. But second of all, yes, I can’t help myself.

Look, you could fix your terrible twitter account by 1. changing the name to reflect that you only cover men’s D1 hockey or 2. cover women’s hockey and men’s D3 hockey with some actual effort.

Apologies to D3 men right now, you’re not really my wheelhouse and there’s just no way I can provide as passionate a post sticking up for what you fellows do. However, guess what, you’re mostly white men who have played a college sport so your life is likely to turn out great.

I mean, this garbage has to stop. I’m not interested in hearing the NCAA whine about how women’s hockey doesn’t pull in ratings and money. Of course it doesn’t, when you can’t even bother to use free social media platforms and exploit free labor from eager young sports management and/or communications majors who don’t yet know to demand pay for their work.

Indeed.

Sportswriter Nicole Haase provided myriad examples of how the NCAA fails from the get-go to promote women’s hockey. When you look through the list of concrete, documented examples Nicole gives, it’s pretty easy to apply Occam’s Razor and conclude the NCAA actually does not want anyone to watch women’s hockey. If you don’t promote it or provide access to it, then it’s very easy to say no one watches it! What other conclusion can one come to, looking at the evidence:

Women’s stats, milestones, and achievements are almost never celebrated. All players of the week, stars of the week, plays of the week, whatevers of the week are men’s D1 players. Men’s hat tricks are celebrated, women’s hat tricks are ignored. (Some men’s D1 player got a hat trick which was touted as the first of the season last year, even though Ashleigh Brykaliuk had already notched one, as had some other women I don’t care about as much.)

Men’s D1 hockey alumni in the pros are highlighted on the account. Meanwhile, I am not sure they are aware that there’s pro women’s hockey anywhere in the world, let alone that NCAA alumnae are tearing up those leagues.

The NCAA tweeted twice about the women’s D1 national championship game on the day of the event. It was televised live for the first time, so you’d think they would want to promote it and get their money’s worth. Apparently not. I’m not sure because I was busy having panic attacks, but I believe the NCAA tweeted twice per second about the men’s D1 national championship game on gameday. Was there a women’s D3 national championship game? Who knows?

The NCAA doesn’t even have someone who is dedicated to women’s hockey social media coverage. Not even a chimpanzee banging away at a keyboard receiving bananas as payment. (Well, roughly 65% of a banana after taxes.)

I took the survey (which initially did not have a comment box, so of course they couldn’t actually find out what people wanted or didn’t want).

Well, none of those things really describe me. Where is the checkbox for deranged blogger and berater of refs?

I also would like to check “None of the above” for why I follow the NCAA Ice Hockey “channels.” Channels? Do you mean accounts? I do not understand. And like I said, none really apply. I don’t “discuss” hockey with other fans via the NCAA’s Twitter account. I discuss it with fans on my own account. And also by screaming at people in the stands. The account doesn’t show anything I can’t see on TV. The account doesn’t promote my favorite teams; in fact, it seems to almost exclusively promote teams I don’t like. I guess there was that whole men’s hockey playing in the national championship game that they covered.

There’s just no way I could in good conscience check “To keep up with all things hockey.” That would imply that the NCAA’s social media platforms keep up with all things hockey, when they actually keep up with a couple things hockey. Even if that is my intent when following it, there’s no way to indicate that they are not living up to my expectations.

Naturally I checked “I consider myself very knowledgeable about college hockey in general.” However, there’s no acknowledgement that people could be fans of multiple teams. Like, say, a men’s and women’s program at their school. Or a D1 program and a D3 program. I don’t think that’s actually covered under “knowledgeable about a few teams.” Or perhaps I am being overly nitpicky? That would be a first.

Again, this focuses on things that I like, rather than how well they are doing at providing me with this content. As Weldie pointed out, “off the field” is not a thing in hockey. Well, not in ice hockey. Perhaps this was the field hockey survey?

Speaking of broken records, I don’t care if I sound like one on this topic.

If anyone answered “yes” to that second question, I want to know what other accounts you’re following. Maybe you’re just following Goon, Bruce Ciskie, and that account that pretends to be about college hockey and then tweets alt-right nonsense (no, the other one, this isn’t mentioning Goon twice). In the case, yes, the NCAA is the best account you follow. Well maybe second best bc Bruce sometimes retweets me.

I chose “never” in regard to clicking on links. It’s the closest to “once in a blue moon” that I could get.

Whoa whoa whoa, NCAA. You are in no way in danger of producing too much content. You are actually producing not enough content. That is the whole freaking problem.

I don’t think the comment box was there in the original survey. I can’t say this for sure, but based on 1. a tweet from Weldie and 2. me not taking the survey initially, I can say this with a 99% confidence level. I know that this is not actually what a confidence level means, but statistics is a made up pseudo-science.

I’ll leave you with the 3 words I wrote in the comment box, the most important thing they could do to improve their social media, their coverage of the sport, and their adherence to the NCAA’s mission of inclusivity:

COVER WOMEN’S HOCKEY.

]]>https://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/07/18/survey-says/feed/2runninwiththedogsSurvey1Survey2Survey3mrburnscampaignCollege Hockey to Experiment With New Predetermined Seasonhttps://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/07/11/college-hockey-to-experiment-with-new-predetermined-season/
https://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/07/11/college-hockey-to-experiment-with-new-predetermined-season/#commentsTue, 11 Jul 2017 17:19:40 +0000http://runninwiththedogs.com/?p=4217]]>In June, the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Ice Hockey Rules Committee met in Indianapolis to discuss potential rules changes for the upcoming season. Among the topics discussed were: options for overtime, the definition of offsides, and respect. It is only natural that the topics of overtime and offsides would be discussed at the committee meeting, as Actual National Champion* North Dakota was affected significantly by both items. The topic of respect was entered into the minutes by mistake, as the members of the Rules Committee were discussing their night of drunken debauchery on the NCAA’s dime the previous evening, when committee member and Hockey East Association commissioner Joseph D. Bertagna performed Aretha Franklin’s iconic song “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” at an Indianapolis karaoke establishment.

One topic that received unanimous support amongst committee members, coaching staff, and journalists alike, was the opportunity to experiment with a predetermined season outcome.

“So many fans come into the season with anxiety or stress over their team’s chances at a national championship,” said Bill Riga, committee member and associate head coach of Quinnipiac University’s men’s team. “With this proposed format, fans will know coming into the season whether or not their team will win a national championship, and can attend games without worrying if an injury or a defensive mistake will ruin their team’s chances at a title.”

The expenses associated with travel will also be reduced, as teams and fans will be able to book flights in advance.

“I know it will ease my mind and the minds of all of Beaver Nation, to know for sure we won’t need to book last-minute flights to the Frozen Four, or to secure ice time and other logistics for a home play-off game,” said Amber Fryklund, assistant coach for Bemidji State University’s women’s program.

“While in past seasons we were 99.999999% certain we would not host or even play in the NCAA tournament, adding that extra 0.000001% has given us peace of mind,” Ms. Fryklund added.

In accordance with protocol and rules committee tradition, the new format will be used on a trial basis in the 2017-18 season, with Men’s Division I adopting the predetermined season. The committee, with input from neutral sources such as D. Goddard Hockey Consulting, Ltd., industry publication Let’s Go DU, and the nonpartisan think tank Puck Swami Institute, has selected the University of Denver as the first predetermined national champion.

“We looked at a variety of factors, including number of returning players across teams, hyperbolic blog posts and tweets from select media, and [Denver head coach] Jim Montgomery’s ability to come within six when I said I was thinking of a number between one and a hundred,” Mr. Bertagna said. It was reported that the number was 63, and Mr. Montgomery selected 57, for undetermined reasons. Among other coaches asked to come up with a number, 2017 runner-up Minnesota Duluth’s Scott Sandelin selected 2, and Actual National Champion North Dakota head coach Brad Berry stared into the distance picking his nose before finally prompted to respond “Eleventy?”

If this format proves successful, look to see it expand across all divisions of NCAA ice hockey in 2018-19.

*70 years running!

]]>https://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/07/11/college-hockey-to-experiment-with-new-predetermined-season/feed/4runninwiththedogsHockey Day Minnesota Duluth!https://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/07/06/hockey-day-minnesota-duluth/
https://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/07/06/hockey-day-minnesota-duluth/#commentsThu, 06 Jul 2017 16:25:38 +0000http://runninwiththedogs.com/?p=4163]]>Let me interrupt my extended period of not giving a crap about hockey to discuss the EXCITING news from yesterday: tUMD will be playing the first ever marquee matchup between women’s teams on Hockey Day Minnesota.

IT’S ABOUT FRICKIN-FRACKIN TIME.

Ahem.

St. Cloud State is the host this year, and they have chosen to feature a non-conference (edit: upon closer inspection, this appears to be a conference game, as now I can’t remember where I read it was noncon [another edit, now I remember, our freaking coach said it was nonconference, wtf is going on]), outdoor matchup with tUMD as one of the main events (along with 2 boys’ games, a men’s game featuring SCSU and Mankato, and the requisite Wild game). I am considering attending. The game is at 1:00, so it would be an easy day trip. We’ll see what the weather is like.

I’m not going to give headpats to the HDM folks for finally figuring out, after 12 years of this crap, that women’s hockey matters, and that there’s really no excuse for excluding women’s college hockey from the event when two of the most prominent programs in the nation are in the state. I’m not interested in the blah blah blah ratings blah blah blah no one likes women’s sports oink oink oink nonsense people like to spew at me, because let’s be real, most of the crap they show during HDM is really boring. It’s like, some dull outdoor HS boys’ game, three hours of Former Gophers: Where Are They Now?, a Gopher men’s hockey game against an out of state opponent, and then a Nate Prosser celebration. The most interesting thing ever to be shown on HDM was Mike Sertich’s Gopher toilet. So, no thank you, I am not interested in mansplaining about ratings! and advertising! and catering exclusively to men!

The second most hilarious thing about the HDM lineup is the closest thing to a “metro” team is Centennial. Generally I mock this event as “Hockey Day Twin Cities” due to its extreme metro slant. I’m really appreciative of this troll job by SCSU. Ugh. Between their significantly improved fanbase (or maybe they just seem improved because I don’t go on USCHO anymore), Katie Fitzgerald’s awesome pro career, and now this brilliant moment of “outstate” rebellion, I’m almost not boiling over in hatred for them.

The MOST hilarious thing about the HDM lineup is the lack of vermin. We got a blazing hot take on that from The Daily Gopher today.

First of all, it’s “a part,” not “apart.” Your stupid teams (yes, teams) will actually be apart from the event. As in not involved.

Second of all, it’s “HUSKY.” And “women’s.” My eye is twitching from all these errors, not to mention opening a paragraph with “With St. Cloud being the host.”

The world may never know why the Gophers were not begged to be a part of this event! Will the person at FSN who discovered the world does not revolve around Gopher men’s hockey be persecuted by the Roman Catholic Inquisition, a la Galileo? Is this bitterness by TDG staffers over yet another instance in which their mediocre men’s hockey team is subjugated by their mediocre pumpkin pushing team?

(This is the point in the post where I briefly flipped back to Twitter and saw that Adam Johnson signed with Pittsburgh and went into a rage blackout.)

I wonder how terrible the ice is going to be for that event. Will it be worse than the outdoor ice that Lucia always sobs about?

I’m actually surprised the Gophers didn’t pull out of HDM years ago, when Joel Rumpel played an entire game with an illegal piece of equipment!!! What if a puck had been saved by the pompom on his knitted hat? THAT IS THE REASON THE GOPHERS LOST TO UNION SEVERAL YEARS LATER!!!

Oh no! An event which lost its (now this is the proper usage of its, unlike the example given in the snippet shown above) luster years ago is taking a significant step back by not catering exclusively to one of five men’s D-1 hockey programs in the state, after said program repeatedly played out-of-state opponents on HDM out of a fear of being upstaged by in-state rival tUMD?

This will probably be the end of HDM. If they’re including those darn women AND they don’t have any Gophers, they’re tarnishing the illustrious HDM brand irreparably!

Also, IT’S (see) A FACT that all hockey teams whose games are shown in more than one household bring in viewers. The minimum number of people required to constitute viewers is 2. So, um, congrats on having at least 2 people watching your stupid team. We have that too! Even in regular definition!

How did that game against Notre Dame work out for you fellas? I’m just curious. Oh wait I recall. I contributed to those high ratings because I was laughing my badonkadonk off.

In conclusion, I am confident that Hockey Day Minnesota will carry on much as it always has, even without The Highest Rated Hockey Team On The Big Ten Network. ESPECIALLY since it will include our very own Bulldog women capturing the first Main Event win for an NCAA women’s team.

]]>https://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/07/06/hockey-day-minnesota-duluth/feed/2runninwiththedogstdg1tdg2tdg3tdg4All-RWD Honors, Cont’dhttps://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/04/13/all-rwd-honors-contd/
https://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/04/13/all-rwd-honors-contd/#respondThu, 13 Apr 2017 16:12:27 +0000http://runninwiththedogs.com/?p=4143]]>To wrap up the All-RWD Honors team, I bring you the women’s team. The men’s team was announced yesterday. Congratulations to each of these women on this prestigious honor.

]]>https://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/04/13/all-rwd-honors-contd/feed/0runninwiththedogsAll-RWD Honorshttps://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/04/12/all-rwd-honors/
https://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/04/12/all-rwd-honors/#commentsWed, 12 Apr 2017 22:46:56 +0000http://runninwiththedogs.com/?p=4119]]>Since every last blog/media outlet/tabloid is putting out their all-whatever honors, I felt I needed to put out mine. I put a lot of thought into this, looked over all the players in the NCHC and in men’s NCAA D-1 college hockey, and after applying appropriate and objective criteria, here’s what the final list looked like:

In four thousand eight hundred and sixty seven minutesHow do you measure a year in the life?

How about love?How about love?How about love?Measure in loveSeasons of loveSeasons of love

The season’s come and gone, finally. Not that I ever truly want the college hockey season to end, but the season began on September 30th, so we’ve had over six months of hockey. In 4867:09 officially (doesn’t include shootouts, 3×3, or exhibition), we’ve been through an emotional wringer.

It didn’t feel right to post about the women’s season coming to a close while the men’s season was still going. I was really down about how it ended, probably moreso than I am about what happened Saturday night. Maybe because it ended 1-0, and it just hurt to get shut out at home in the playoffs. I hate to go to games without getting to cheer a single goal for my team.

I didn’t know when I was going to get around to writing that final post about the women’s season, but it’s unfortunate that both teams ended up losing their final games, and I’m sad that it was prescient of me to wait.

But there was so much to enjoy about this hockey season. The women started off with a win and tie against BC (which proved to be HUGE for them in the PWR), the men started off with a sweep against MTU (also a huge PWR boost, especially since they faltered a bit against Bemidji with that yucky tie). Both teams overall came up big in non-conference play, which kept them in solid position for the playoffs all year long.

Both teams had HUGE wins, like the men’s 5-0 record against UND and the women’s home sweep of UMTC and 4-1 win against Wisconsin. Both teams had plenty of overtime games to scare us, and dramatic playoff victories, like the women’s 2-1 2OT win against UMTC in the Final Faceoff, and like oh… NEARLY EVERY PLAYOFF GAME THE MEN PLAYED.

More importantly, these players showed us they gave their hearts and minds to every game, and they carried themselves with grace and integrity on and off the ice. At times they made mistakes, or made us frustrated, but we never saw them quit. We saw Dom Toninato miss breakaways, and while he was frustrated, he kept shooting, kept on fighting for that next goal. We saw Lara Stalder step back to play defense and double-shift when the team needed her to, defying the limits of human cardiovascular efficiency, and still step up in 2OT to get that goal against the Goofs. We saw Maddie Rooney and Hunter Miska make save after save they had no business making, sometimes on an unbelievable play by the opponent, and sometimes to bail out one of their teammates.

We saw two teams leave it all on the ice. Who could ever be disappointed with a season like that?

]]>https://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/04/11/seasons-of-love/feed/2runninwiththedogsA Study in Maroonhttps://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/04/05/a-study-in-maroon/
https://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/04/05/a-study-in-maroon/#respondThu, 06 Apr 2017 04:58:35 +0000http://runninwiththedogs.com/?p=4027]]>Tomorrow (or today, or perhaps sometime in the distant past, depending on when you read this), tUMD faces Harvard for the chance to play for a national championship. We’ve been here before together, folks. But it feels different, doesn’t it? Let’s compare and contrast.

Then: The tournament was in St. Paul.
Now: The tournament is in Chicago.

Then: I bought tickets months in advance, because it was in St. Paul, so I figured we’d go no matter what.
Now: I was offered tickets at face value by a friend during the regional, because I wasn’t going to go unless tUMD made it.

Then: I lived in St. Louis Park.
Now: I live in Duluth.

Then: I was a recent Augsburg grad.
Now: I am a semi-recent tUMD grad!

Then: We had beautiful weather!
Now: It’s cold, rainy, and all the outdoor festivities tomorrow have been canceled.

Then: I went with DA, my brother, the Aaaahj, my uncle, and Dirty.
Now: I am attending with DA, the Aaaahj, Biddy, Kleiner, and my uncle.

Then: tUMD was in the WCHA and no one had even heard of the NCHC.
Now: tUMD is in the NCHC and it owns.

Then: tUMD was captained by a very old Mike Montgomery, with two assistant captains with the same last name: Mike Connolly and Jack Connolly, a Duluth Marshall alumnus who resembled either Zac Brown or a grizzly bear.
Now: tUMD is captained by Dominic Toninato, a Duluth East alumnus who resembles a Teddy Graham, with a very old assistant captain Brendan Kotyk, and two assistant captains with the same first name: Karson Kuhlman and Carson Soucy.

Then: tUMD hit rock-bottom at mid-season when they were destroyed in the Amsoil Arena opener after a top defenceman defected to the pros after leaving for Team Canada’s WJC camp.
Now: tUMD had some minor ups and downs but stayed near the top of PWR essentially for the entire season. (I don’t really care to fact check that so I can say it definitively.)

Then: North Dakota was THE team for the entire season.
Now: DU and tUMD were THE teams for awhile and then Denver took that role over entirely in the second half.

Then: tUMD went out to Bridgeport for their regional and destroyed Union and Yale (the overall #1).
Now: tUMD went to Fargo for their regional as the overall #2 seed and had to go to overtime to beat THE Ohio State and Boston University.

Then: tUMD matched up against Notre Dame in the semis, and their conferencemates UND matched up against Michigan.
Now: tUMD, the Harvard of the Midwest, plays the Harvard of Harvard, Harvard. Their conferencemates, Denver (the overall #1) match up against Notre Dame.

Then: Kevin Pates was the beat writer for the Duluth News Tribune, and Bruce Ciskie was the “vox.”
Now: Matt Wellens is the DNT beat writer, but Bruce is still voxxing away.

Then: tUMD bleached their hair for the playoffs, and I followed suit. My hair basically disintegrated and took months to recover.
Now: tUMD has normal hair and so do I. Relatively speaking.

Then: I was a nervous wreck for the fortnight leading up to the tournament. I thought it was an impossible dream, and that if they didn’t win, they’d never have another chance.
Now: I’ve dissociated myself from the upcoming events and blithely carried on my day to day activities as though everything in the hockey world is not on the line come 5 pm. I know that tDogs have won it once, so they certainly can win it again. (By no means does this indicate I am overly confident, or even confident at all.)

What an absurd weekend of hockey. Friday, as you know, I was sitting in my cube, gazing out at the parkade directly outside my window, half-heartedly following the BU-UND game on Twitter. I drove home from work and of course UND had broken a plane of glass (a good strategy they’ve employed before) and tied it up and they were going to OT. I wanted to get in a short run before tUMD’s game, so I thought I’d head out and get that out of the way. Just before I left, I checked Twitter one more time, saw UND had scored, and shrugged. Ok, no matter what happened in the late game, I wouldn’t be going to Fargo. Cool, no drive!

So for almost an hour, I thought North Dakota had won. Imagine my surprise when I returned home, expecting tUMD’s game was about to start, and found… the game was still going. And then ended for real with a very different result. All I have to say to the majority of UND fans is:

tUMD’s game started rather late, of course (almost 2 hours, I think!) and I actually don’t think that was a good thing. I know it sounded nice for our potential opponents to be exhausting themselves in multiple overtimes, but it also threw our guys off their game, because they had to wait. Naturally, it also threw duhOSU off their game, but I tend to think those types of things benefit the crappier team. Mostly because it seemed to benefit duhOSU and they were the crappier team.

The ref positioned behind the net had a rough day as both an OSU goal and a UMD goal had to be overturned for basically the exact same thing: hitting the goalie in the back but not actually crossing the goal line. Goalinato sure sold it when it happened to him! It worked out well though because it meant OSU did not jump out to a lead. tUMD scored twice in the second (and nearly scored a third time on this sick pass from Blake Young to Jared Thomas):

Then for some reason tDogs decided to play absolutely rotten in the 3rd. I can’t explain it. They allowed some total losers to score, including one guy who is named “Gordi” as if he is a hybrid tribute to Gordie Howe and Geordi Laforge and who hadn’t scored a goal in his college hockey career. WUT. No. And it could have been worse, if not for Hunter Miska:

Raise your hand if you needed a defibrillator to resurrect you after that. RIP me. Our man Willie Raskob had enough. He channeled all the pent-up frustranxiety of tUMD fans into that shot. Well maybe not all of it because the shot didn’t rip through the net, bust a hole through the boards, and reduce the arena to smoking rubble. But it was a hard shot.

So, I was off to Fargo, thanks to some friends. Friends who are UND fans, BTW, and I will remind you that while there are a disproportionate number of UND fans who are… shall we say, delusional, incoherent, violent, alcoholic, racist sociopaths, there are lots of really amazing people. These two wonderful ladies hooked me up with tickets, a parking pass, and two FanFest tickets. Another wonderful fella hooked my dad up with a ticket. All we had to do was get there. Which for me was quite the boring, depressing drive. Yeesh, northwestern Minnesota, spruce yourself up.

We arrived about an hour before the game, met up with my dad (who of course got to drive a real freeway the whole way, as opposed to a glorified Oregon Trail), and then headed over to the rink to meet up with Biddco, Dan of the Week, and other assorted hooligans. We all were able to sit together, although some of us had to move down a row when some ticketed people showed up. They weren’t even tUMD fans so I don’t know why they didn’t just sit elsewhere. I ended up sitting in front of a couple guys chewing tobacco and spitting into plastic cups, so that was disgusting.

There were a fair number of people at the game, but most of them seemed to be UND fans who couldn’t decide who they hated more: Pionk or the team that ended their season after a controversial offsides call. They sucked up a lot of the atmosphere, since they chose not to take sides. I really think that hostility to tUMD would have been preferable to apathy, as far as atmosphere goes, but whatever. Friday was a fairly draining day for everyone, and maybe folks weren’t ready for more hockey, having seen 3 games’ worth of hockey crammed into two games the day before.

I don’t know what the heck happened, but the first two periods went by in the blink of an eye. Maybe it was because there were only 5 penalties in the game? I’m not sure. tUMD went down early on a goal from Clayton Kellar, and once again, the game could have been much worse early on, if not for this Miska save to keep it 0-0 at the time:

This happened basically right in front of my face and I could not believe it. Anyway, I thought tUMD would be in decent shape going into the first intermission down a goal. It wasn’t ideal, but wasn’t insurmountable. Then tDogs really started to come on in the last minute or so, and Alex Iafallo made sure they went into the locker room tied.

Very good stuff.

The second period was a bit frustrating because tUMD had a PP and squandered it with a too many men situation so obvious that even I saw it, and I never see those penalties. Usually it happens along the bench, but in this case, we could almost see the moment where the whole team went “Oh ****” (put whatever word you like in there) because it was too late. Le sigh. And then it was the second intermission, and it felt like the game had gone by in the blink of an eye.

Halfway through the third, my dude Joey Anderson scored a goal that I did not fully appreciate until seeing this GIF.

It happened at the opposite end of the rink so I couldn’t see that it was really 2 shots, and that he roofed that shot just before he ran out of time and space. Wow. We spent the next several minutes praying for the guys to hang on, and of course, prayer doesn’t work, because it was tied. And it just felt weird. Like maybe no one would score, and it would be 5 OTs, and everyone would all die, and the game would just be forfeited and OSU and UND would have to play for the forfeited spot in memory of their fallen comrades on tUMD and BU.

I swear they slowed the clocks down during intermission. There’s just no other explanation for it.

Early on in OT, Bobo Carpenter (no relation) took a guy down. It happened at center ice, I don’t even know who he actually took down, and I didn’t really see it due to the bad sight line I had, but I do know that tUMD had a PP, and a chance to get justice for 2015. (There used to be a YouTube video to a Tupac song in that post, but I guess it got yanked.)

And lo, justice was served.

What an unbelievable moment, to end an unbelievable weekend. That was one of the most grueling regionals I can recall, and there were probably four or five plays that came inches, millimeters, Angstroms away from ending tUMD’s season, and yet tDogs are going to Chicago.

And so am I. Come on ‘Dogs, we’re gonna paint the town — and all that jazz.

]]>https://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/03/27/all-that-jazz/feed/0runninwiththedogsZen and the Art of Watching College Hockeyhttps://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/03/24/zen-and-the-art-of-watching-college-hockey/
https://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/03/24/zen-and-the-art-of-watching-college-hockey/#commentsFri, 24 Mar 2017 21:25:52 +0000http://runninwiththedogs.com/?p=3906]]>tUMD takes the ice in like 1.5 hours (really less than that, but I am rounding, but probably more than that, because of the broken glass), and I’m at work (working very hard, I know. It is Friday, I am salaried, and I get my work done on time). I was feeling a bit anxious earlier — but only because of a professional exam I have to take, not because of the hockey game.

Let’s contrast that with 2011. (It appears that the Starland Vocal Band video was pulled from YouTube at some point. Whoops.) Life was a lot different then, but that was the last time I felt really keyed up about a regional. I suppose because it was in St. Paul? I was so anxious all day. Here is an excerpt from that post:

And when I say suffered, I mean SUFFERED. Holy mother. I was completely distracted, my heart was pounding, and I thought I was going to puke. Good god was that stressful. I sent a frantic email to one of my friends sort of jabbering on about how freaked out I was about the game. Then I wrote “Gee, I guess I’m not helping, am I?” She wrote back “NO YOU’RE NOT!” Ha.

And yet here I am, listening to Alice in Chains, blogging out of boredom, and thinking about maybe planning what I’m going to say for a meeting I’m running in 15 minutes. (Now that I’ve thought about it, I’m just going to wing it. And actually now the meeting is over, had to stop writing the blog and hop on the call.) 2011 RWD would be like “What happened to you? You used to be cool.”

To which I would say, “Jeah, whatever. I am cool. You’re the one who has no chill.” Neither “Jeah” nor “no chill” was in my lexicon in 2011 so that would be very confusing for Past RWD.

What did happen to me, though? I didn’t have any major life changes (ok I moved to Duluth and graduated from tUMD but I guess I don’t count that), and I am certainly not more mature.

A national championship happened, I guess. It happened, when it felt like maybe it would never. tUMD from getting a maybe once-in-a-decade shot at a title to playing much more regularly in the national tournament. If it can happen once, it can happen again. Anyone can win 4 games in a row, especially when there must be a winner (no ties, shoot-outs, etc.)

But somehow I’ve managed to keep the joy of victory while letting go of the sorrow of defeat. I don’t know if that happened because I pulled back from fan message boards like USCHO and RacistmascotSports, or because I see tUMD play a lot more, or because there are actual problems in this world like a fascist (well, many fascists) in the White House, or because I got into trail running and work out all my aggression through running, but somehow I’ve managed to stop getting so negatively invested in games. Perhaps I finally was able to internalize that I personally am not a better or worse person because the team I choose to cheer for wins or loses. That sounds stupid but at the same time if more people would realize that, we wouldn’t have, like, hockey dads fighting in parking lots over mites games.

I don’t know what’s going to happen tonight, or even what’s going to happen in the UND-BU game (currently 3-1 BU with 12 minutes to go), but I know that I enjoyed the season, I don’t want it to end, I want to go to Chicago, and that even if tUMD’s season doesn’t end in a win, life will go on, and I’ll still be able to enjoy sports.

Tl; dr version? I’m better than you.

Let’s go DOGGIES!

]]>https://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/03/24/zen-and-the-art-of-watching-college-hockey/feed/1runninwiththedogsWith Honors, Toohttps://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/03/23/with-honors-too/
https://runninwiththedogs.com/2017/03/23/with-honors-too/#respondFri, 24 Mar 2017 04:21:57 +0000http://runninwiththedogs.com/?p=3847]]>I spent a fair bit of time breaking down some stats about the WCHA’s All-Academic Team when it was announced, and decided to do the same for the NCHC’s. I didn’t realize that it had been released over a month ago, since I expected it to be announced with the rest of the awards. Stupid me. Here’s the full list of players.

I’ll say it again, schools don’t do enough to emphasize the student in student-athlete. When I look up a senior on DU and find out his major is “undecided,” I think one of two things: 1. He declared a major but DU doesn’t care about updating a player’s bio once he declares (but have no problem whipping out a thesaurus to write a ridiculous blurb about the player’s accomplishments over the previous seasion), or 2. He is still undeclared and DU doesn’t care whether or not their players are on track to graduate. Neither is a good look, Monty/Peg.

The average number of All-Academic team athletes per school was 15.38. UNO leads the way with 19, so I guess Gappy McTooth is doing something right there. The average roster size for the NCHC is 27.38 (CC has 31 guys!), and the demographics of the team will affect how many players are eligible. Like, Miami looks like a bunch of chumps, but they have 14 freshmen out of 26 guys. That means all but two of their eligible players (idk, maybe someone is a red shirt freshman, but I don’t care) is on the team. I say all but 2 because they actually have a non-rostered player, Johnny Wingels, on the team. Because he is a non-rostered player, he is included in the chart below, but not in any of the future charts (as the pertinent data is not readily available). Congratulations to all 123 of these men!

Sorry about the formatting on these charts. Google Sheets isn’t as nice as Excel. I don’t want all this freaking white space!!! Look how stupid the chart below looks, with all that space in the bottom right. Gah.

By position, of course there are more forwards than defencemen than goaltenders, since that’s how a normal roster is made up. What’s interesting is the proportional makeup of the All-Academic Team is almost identical to the proportional makeup of the population of players as a whole. This happened on the women’s side as well. No position outperformed their proportion.

I considered comparing the men’s and women’s results, but ultimately decided against it. First, while there are 8 women’s teams in the WCHA and 8 men’s teams in the NCHC, there’s not significant overlap in the member schools. There are also more rostered men than rostered women, so the comparisons would all have to be proportional, and I didn’t feel like pulling all that stuff together. Finally, I don’t think it really says much, other than maybe looking at the majors, which we will.

Here’s how the majors break down by category. Applied sciences are things like exercise science or public health (I see you, Brendan Kotyk). 51% of the players are majoring in a business-type subject (there could be more, as you see 26% were either undecided/undeclared or their bio did not list their major), which is not super surprising. There are way more business majors than on the women’s side (18% over there). As a person with a business-type major (finance and accounting), that is not surprising, as my classes always seemed to have more men than women. And we all know anecdotal evidence is proof, right?

There are 4 engineering majors, and 3 are goalies. Will Massey, Matt Hrynkiw, and Nick Deery are the goalies, and Ben Storm is… idk, a Fooper who really, really didn’t want to go to Tech? There were 3 women in the WCHA majoring in engineering (again, possibly more, as 36% of players did not have a major provided!), which is interesting – as a person with an engineering degree (mechanical), my classes were teeming with men and I was frequently the only woman. I’m not surprised engineering and sciences are uncommon majors among hockey players, due to the workload from the majors (especially engineering), the time commitment from the sport, and the schedule complications due to labs and senior design. When looking at all the STEM categories (applied science, science, and engineering), a higher proportion of women (22.7%) than men (8.2%) are enrolled in those majors. Now that’s something interesting.

I looked at where the players were from geographically: 75% of NCHC players are American. This is higher than I thought! Canadians underperformed vs. the general population of rostered Canadians, and Americans and Europeans slightly overperformed. I didn’t look at the population of eligible players (it’s too hard to tell due to transfers/red shirts), so it could be that there’s a lot of freshmen Canadians and they didn’t truly underperform, but, c’mon. The map just shows the states/provinces where the All-Academic team guys are from, it doesn’t really say stuff, it’s just there for Biddy because he likes maps.

Congrats again to all 123 players! Thanks for setting an example for young hockey players that education is important, and for making the most out of this great opportunity before moving on to your pro careers, whether you go pro in hockey or you don’t.